By Night in Chile

1. Explain the point of Urrutia’s deathbed confession. What are the “slanderous rumors” Urrutia feels he must defend himself against, and who is the “wizened youth” spreading these rumors? Is Urrutia actually guilty of the things the youth accuses him of?The novella By Night in Chile takes the form of a deathbed confession narrated by …

Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean poet and author who shot to international fame in recent years for his highly inventive, politically charged novels. Bolaño received the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, a prestigious award given to novels written in Spanish, for The Savage Detectives (Los detectives salvajes) in 1999. In 2008, some five years after his …

“I am dying now, but I still have many things to say. I used to be at peace with myself. Quiet and at peace. But it all blew up unexpectedly. That wizened youth is to blame” (p. 1) These are the opening lines of By Night in Chile, in which the aged priest, poet, and …

Religious Hypocrisy In By Night in Chile, Bolaño offers a scathing critique of the Catholic Church for what he sees as its role in aiding the rise of fascism in Europe and in his native Chile. While it is true that many liberal priests in Latin America fought for workers’ and peasants’ rights, Urrutia is …

Falconry The sport of falconry appears as a metaphor in Bolaño’s novel for the cruelty of fascism (that is, a radically right-wing, anticommunist government ruled by a dictator, such as Hitler, Mussolini, or Pinochet). Falcons are birds of prey, trained by falconers to hunt on command. In the book, the priests of Europe employ falcons …

Father Antonio Father Antonio is an elderly priest Urrutia meets in Spain. Father Antonio, a falconer, comes to oppose the bloody practice of falconry used by the Church to rid their monuments and buildings of pigeons. María Canales María Canales is a socialite and novice author who hosts literary salons in her fashionably decorated home …

Summary of pages 101–130 Shortly after Urrutia spills his secret to Farewell about the classes on Marxism, the story is all over Santiago. Although Urrutia urged his friend to keep the secret, Farewell obviously did not. Urrutia is terrified of what will happen to him now, but nothing does. Nobody cares, and life goes …

Summary of pages 80–100 Urrutia says that he returns to Chile to find his nation “not in a healthy state” (79) and wonders what is happening to his beloved land. In 1970, Allende wins the presidential election. Urrutia and Farewell are miserable. Urrutia begins reading Greek tragedies. He recounts the events of the next …

Summary of pages 56–79 The “wizened youth”—Urrutia’s own conscience—next accuses him of having been a member of Opus Dei, a secretive Roman Catholic organization. Urrutia protests that he never tried to hide that fact and points out that he was “probably the most liberal member” of the conservative sect in Chile, even praising some …

Summary of pages 23–55 In the nights that follow, Father Urrutia recalls images from his stay at Farewell’s estate. He pictures Farewell sitting in a chair at his club, “speaking of literary immortality” (23) and envisions a conga-line of dancing socialites, including Farewell. He recalls his father’s shadow “slipping away down the corridors of …